The Shell to Sea Campaign
Posted on May 11, 2010 at 12:23 PM
How WIME (Women In Media & Entertainment) got involved in The Shell to Sea Campaign. We were approached by Maura Harrington, headmistress of a small primary school in Erris, County Mayo. She was alerting people all over the country to the perils of the Corrib Gas Project and its potential damage to the environment; she was inviting groups to a summer camp at Rossport where five men and one woman had been served an injunction to stop their opposition to the entry of Shell's agents on to their land.
Shell at that time was preparing to lay a pipe for very dangerous untreated gas very close to their homes. WIME went to the summer camp, where we made a film, "Shell Hell," about the resistance to Shell, and even as we made it, the five men were sent to jail for contempt of court - they had refused to abide by the injunction - while Breige Magarry, the only women in the party, was not. A secret Shell memo was revealed, saying that her imprisonment would create too much bad publicity, she being the sole carer of her elderly mother.
Our film concentrated on the tremendous work done by the wives of the Five, who had never been engaged in any sort of public activity before: their strength and passion for justice really put Rossport on the map. "Shell Hell" was edited by my son Finn Arden and became part of the campaign; it has been shown in film festivals in Dublin, London and Glasgow, and hundreds of DVDs of it have been distributed from the camp.
From a single issue of safety the campaign has hugely opened up and opened our eyes to the historical truth of the Great Gas Giveaway of 1975, how the élite have gambled with our health and wealth - Ireland has 100s of billions worth of gas & oil, equal to €100,000 for every person in Ireland; as things stand, the multinationals will get it all.
"Next to arms sales, the oil trade is one of the greatest sources of corruption in the world." [Michael Soussan, New York University]
Here is a petition which WIME (Women In Media & Entertainment) helped to launch: --
For ten years now, the location and the manner of execution of the Corrib Gas project in the Erris peninsula has been the source of considerable concern to the community in the area. This Government has rejected all attempts at genuine compromise and mediation on the part of those who have concerns about the health and safety of the project. Furthermore in what Afri has termed 'The Great Gas Giveaway' the terms agreed with the private company Shell E&P Ireland have ensured that one of Irelands most valuable assets will not be exploited for the benefit of either the community or the Irish people.
We request that you would add your name to our petition which calls for a suspension of the work on the project pending an independent investigation by a body qualified to asses the safety, economic, environmental and human rights aspects of this project. This petition has the support of all groups in the area who are opposed to the project in its current form. We aim to deliver this petition to Taoiseach Brian Cowen within a period of three months and to use it to remind him that the first responsibility of a government is to its people.
Please add your name to this call for a suspension of the work, which we believe, is essential as a first step in resolving this crisis, which has now run for ten years and shows no signs of abating unless significant steps such as this are taken.
Click here for petition.
To an Taoiseach Brian Cowen:
We the undersigned call on the Irish Government to immediately suspend work on the Corrib Gas project pending a full investigation by an independent body qualified to assess the economic, environmental, safety and human rights impacts of the project.
This demand is based on the Afri Publication: 'The Great Gas Giveaway,' available to download at www.afri.ie
For background information: www.indymedia.ie/mayo , www.corribgas.net and www.shelltosea.com
Comments
This short piece is intended to bring members up to date on the intervening period. We continued to lobby various sections of civil society in an attempt both to provide information on the issue and to elicit support.
A delegation was invited to the Mansion House by Lord Mayor Emer Costello where the issue was discussed at length. In December we attended City Hall where Mary Robinson was honoured by the NWCI. It is with regret I note that, to date, Mary Robinson has appeared to maintain a distance from what is happening to women in north Mayo involved in informed opposition to Corrib. It should be understood that, before what is now referred to as the 'curse of Corrib' came to this beautiful corner of north Mayo, the women living here were not particularly interested in politics; in rural communities such as we enjoy, family and communal concerns come first. It was this type of lifestyle/mindset that ironically formed the basis for the radicalisation of women which has happened over the past ten years - the threat to family and community health, safety and long term viability for future generations created the conditions where women who heretofore were politically disinterested became defenders of the values that define and underpin the concept of sustainability.
We have gone through exponential learning curves in the past ten years - learning about the oil/gas industry from scratch; writing reams of submissions to a range of government and statutory departments; seeing the implicit faith we had placed in the institutions of the state destroyed by official disdain and corporate arrogance and much, much more - while all the time trying (to a greater or lesser degree!) to deal with regular family and work commitments because births, marriages, deaths, illness, exams, personal crises don't get suspended during campaigns.
This process of radicalisation has been accompanied by a demonization campaign which could have been expected in an academic sense but still comes as a shock in practice. On a personal note the fact that another woman of my own vintage ordered that I undergo a psychiatric assessment while in prison was nasty; I remain to be convinced that there was any rationale for such other than to provide media headlines which hark back to historic practice in dealing with 'troublesome' women. We find ourselves in the unfortunate position of our sisters in the north of Ireland who for so many years struggled to get a wider population to listen to and believe just how bad things are. There is often a similar feeling of powerlessness here which is very dangerous to democracy as a whole.
One of the enlightening aspects of the past decade for women in north Mayo has been (together with gaining competencies in so many areas) forging deep bonds of friendship with so many other women whom we would never otherwise have met. As well as meeting women nationally we have also met great women who come to the Rossport Solidarity Camp (RSC) every year to help the local communities. This has been a revelation and a gift through very dark times. Front Line Defenders, an Irish based Human Rights NGO has just published 'Breakdown in Trust: A Report on the Corrib Gas Dispute' by Brian Barrington BL. This report finds that those involved in informed, peaceful opposition to the proposed imposition of the Corrib Project qualify as defenders per the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). At present we are supporting two women whose partners are politically imprisoned in Castlerea. Mary O'Donnell, wife of Pat 'The Chief' is coping with home and trying to keep a business going; she gets one visit and two phones with Pat weekly; her mother is in hospital and the pet of family, Aisling (born nine years after her now adult siblings) is making her First Holy Communion on May 16th - Pat has been refused special/compassionate day leave to attend; Carol, Niall Harnett's partner lives three miles from the nearest Bus Eireann stop which operates once a week - she is totally dependent on others for basic transport needs.
Two other women feature in another aspect of Corrib - Brid McGarry, a farmer who did exactly the same as the Rossport Five at the time was not named for imprisonment by Shell because she was a woman! (We have seen the underlying documentation). Brid, together with Brendan Philbin, one of the Five, is ploughing a hard path through the High Court before Ms. Justice Laffoy who has recently upheld their claim that Shell has a case to answer in relation to proceedings initiated by Shell in 2005. The case is ongoing. The women of north Mayo have shown the commitment, integrity and tenacity over the past decade which is so sadly lacking in the Ireland of today to which we continue to give our allegiance even though we feel abandoned by the state. We will continue this for as many decades as it takes for as long as we are left here to do so - in the knowledge that when we are no longer around our daughters and sons will continue what we began. We ask you to please meet us, listen to us and help us in any way you can. Ireland is not a continent yet we feel at times that we are living in a time and space bubble invisible outside the Barony of Erris - please, please help to rectify this and place us at the centre of things rather than leave us on the periphery. There is a template of state behaviour being developed in Erris which bodes ill for all of us.
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